TONY HETHERINGTON: Cold caller sold me a pointless call blocker

Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday's ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below.

B.B.writes: Although I am registered with the Telephone Preference Service, nuisance calls have increased so I contacted TPS. I then received a call, apparently on behalf of TPS, and a young lady said that for £79.99 she could supply a ‘Call Blocker Pro’ that would virtually eliminate annoying calls. I was assured that calls from a relative abroad would still get through, so I gave my debit card details.

Frustrating: Nuisance calls can be very disruptive

The Blocker arrived, but with no instructions. Worse, calls from abroad were blocked. I realise now that I have been dealing with a business called Telecom Protection Service Limited, and not with the real TPS. I returned the Blocker but was refused a refund because I had not returned it quickly enough.

Oh, the
irony of it. You received a cold call, offering a device to block cold
calls, even though you had already registered to say you did not want
cold calls.

And
what a shame that Bournemouth businessman Giles Ward-Best, who runs
Telecom Protection Service Limited, could not think of a name for his
company that avoided the initials of the Telephone Preference Service,
the genuine body that offers a free scheme allowing people to say they
do not want sales calls. He insisted though, that his sales people are
told not to use the initials TPS ‘to avoid confusion with other
services’.

So
what does he offer that the real TPS does not? Ward-Best told me his
Blocker rejects calls from withheld numbers. Your relative abroad would
have to contact her phone company and ask for a ‘withheld number bypass
prefix’ and remember to dial this before dialling you.

Nuisance: Telecom Protection Service operates from this building in Bournemouth

But surely sales callers can do exactly the same? Ward-Best agreed, but explained: ‘You simply hang up the phone and click the block button on your Call Blocker Pro box.’ This blacklists their number – until they dial from a different number of course.

It is actually unlawful to make unsolicited sales calls to people who have said they do not want them. Ward-Best knows this because his company’s website says so.

How come, then, that his sales woman called you? He suggested you might have completed a survey or application and had failed to read the small print consenting to sales calls. I asked him whether he was saying you had actually done this and allowed his company’s calls. At this point, Ward-Best failed to answer any more questions.

This is a shame, because I also pointed out that his own terms and conditions allow goods to be returned within seven days and you had sent the Blocker back within that time limit. So why no refund? Ward-Best offered no explanation.

John Mitchison of the genuine Telephone Preference Service told me: ‘We are seeing more and more companies like this, and more and more using the TPS acronym. The genuine TPS is free to consumers and there is never any reason for us to call anybody. We are not getting into the business of selling these call blockers.’

Anyone wanting to stop the majority of nuisance calls only has to ring the real TPS on 0845 070 0707.

WE'VE HAD NO POWER BILL SINCE 2012

Mrs J.B.writes: My husband and I have not had an electricity bill since November 2012. I have called npower but have been told there are ‘technical issues’ with its billing system. We have had our meter read regularly, but npower is still unable to produce a bill. As pensioners, we are worried that when a bill does arrive, we shall not be able to afford it.

I sometimes get letters from people who have been billed incorrectly. And sometimes there are letters from people who say their meter has never been read. But to have your meter read regularly, yet never to get a bill – that’s a new one.

I asked npower what was going on. Apparently you have one electricity meter, but for some unknown reason it has two ‘supply numbers’ in npower’s records and until now nobody has sorted this out.

Your account has now been updated and by the time you read this you will have received a bill and an apology.

And the good news is that npower is knocking 50 per cent off your bill by way of saying sorry.

Taxman takes ages to sort pension

Mrs C.L.D.writes: I work as a shop assistant. When I reached 60, I expected to start paying income tax on my new state pension. I informed Revenue & Customs and was told my tax would be adjusted. As a result, I was stopped a month’s pay in tax.

The Revenue apologised and again said my tax would be adjusted. This happened and I thought everything was fine.

Then I got a letter saying I owed £800, to be collected over two years. Next, when I approached 65 it asked for details of all my income, which I supplied. I was given a new Pay As You Earn code and a £900 rebate.

Now the tax office wants another £800, to be paid over two years, but I don’t know if I will be working for that long. I phoned the Revenue, extremely worried, and was told I should have known the figures were wrong.

In less than a year during 2012 and 2013, you received five PAYE coding notices. Three of them imposed ‘K codes’, tailor-made calculations backed by pages of figure work. To say that you should have spotted mistakes made by trained Revenue staff is just nonsense.

I asked the Revenue to look into this. Staff agree you told them about your pension at 60, but they deny knowing the amount and say this is why they failed to collect enough tax. You were left owing £870, and the Revenue collected £434 of this. Then, for no clear reason, it stopped collecting the rest.

The £800 said to be owed is not a new £800. It is the same as the earlier arrears. And in fact, you can forget about it. There is £436 still due, but the Revenue has decided to write it off. You do not owe a penny and the taxman says a £30 cheque has been sent to you as an apology for the official mistakes.

That’s wet…they’ve lost my water meter

I.A.writes: In 2012, because my water bill increased significantly, I challenged the consumption figures. A survey showed the water system was sound but my meter was exchanged and the old one taken for testing. Months later, United Utilities told me the old meter had been lost.

ASK AN EXPERT

Judging by the bundle of bills and meter readings that you sent me, it did seem that your water consumption was way above average. However, when I contacted United Utilities, the company was just as puzzled. It seems the average person uses 0.14 cubic metres of water each day. You had been using 0.34 cubic metres.

United Utilities says it offered advice on how to use less water, and it installed a new meter, but your consumption was still around double the daily average.What you did not tell me in your original letter was that you unfortunately suffer from two medical conditions – psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis – that can require extra laundry and hot baths.

Of course, it is still possible the old meter was faulty, though it is hard to imagine the replacement is also a dud.

On the other hand, United Utilities did itself no favours since it admits it accidentally scrapped the old meter without testing it.

The bottom line is that it has offered to fit your new meter with a logger that monitors consumption with the aim of cutting your bills further. It has also offered a goodwill payment of £150 as it failed to test the old meter. Given that you still consume water at double the average rate, I suggest you accept.

If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, Room 301, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.